The project "Student Activities and Athletic Facilities (SAAF)" comprises ten buildings on a developed area of more than 200,000 square meters. They include sports and recreational facilities for students from all faculties with a capacity for around 40,000 people. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) from the USA were the design architects. They collaborated with Gulf Consult (GC) from Kuwait, the engineering firm for the project.
The centerpiece of the site consists of two six-story main buildings, each an "Athletic, Recreation and Aquatic Centre (ARAQ)" for men and women. They house centers for competitive, recreational, and aquatic sports as well as parts of the student services. A courtyard physically separates the women's and men's sides, each offering the same facilities and scope. The project also includes two smaller sports facilities, two information points, the headquarters of the student services, a bus stop for campus transportation, a tennis hall with 2,000 seats, and an outdoor football and athletics stadium with a capacity for 15,000 spectators.
A sand-lime brick facade gives the main buildings (ARAQ) a noble and natural appearance. Characteristic are the triangular windows, which are arranged modularly and according to the sun orientation. Part of the approximately 75,000 square meter facade was fastened with 15,000 FZP II M8i internal thread anchors. The execution of the facade started in 2019 and was successfully completed at the beginning of 2020.
“We convinced the facade builders with our comprehensive technical support from planning and calculation to on-site execution support,” emphasizes Jan Zimmermann, Market Manager Facade Systems. “In addition, the advantages of our Zykon panel anchors speak for themselves.” The FZP II are fastened form-fittingly and completely without expansion pressure in the conically undercut drilled hole in the natural stone. This technique ensures lower panel bending moments than with edge fastenings. Compared to alternative solutions, higher load capacities are additionally achieved.
Our undercut anchors are designed to be invisible even in the joint pattern, contributing to a high-quality and harmonious facade appearance. This way, they combine secure anchoring with the high aesthetic demands of the facades of the ARAQ centers.
